Citizens’ Right to Know

I have been reading the scandalous disclosures of all the hidden perks and payments the Ventura County Board of Supervisors and its top staff and cronies have been helping themselves to. It’s pretty disgusting.

It leads me to ask a question: What is corruption in government? When elected officials, and those they appoint, knowingly withhold facts and figures that the citizens have a right to know, I think it is corrupt. My basic understanding of democracy includes voters’ entitlement to know these things. Government is everybody’s business.

Are the supervisors above the law? Do they have the right to tell half-truths and conceal what they do not want the public to know?

This is the sort of bunk that has caused many Americans to lose faith in government, both elected and appointed. And we have the audacity to look at other countries and call them corrupt.

CURTIS P. DAVISON

Treasurer

Oxnard Residents

for Responsible Government

Oxnard